thinking some more about the notations I made on this post, talking about the concept of follies. That is, decorative architecture made to be garden pieces that are designed to look like old ruins or architecture.
It's funny, the whole point of such buildings is that the people who commissioned them wanted to evoke and emulate the past. History was glamorized. It started with the grand estates of the wealthy in Europe, some of whom would have real ancient ruins from the Roman era or pre-Roman empire, and others who didn't who wanted to give the impression of that sense of history.
And I think now, as with that photo set, some people will look at such follies, not knowing what it is, and get very excited at the thought of it being some grand place loaded with ancient historical significance. Which is precisely the purpose they were built for, tbh. As an art piece, such things are effective. But I think a lot of people, realizing that they are actually recent structures, it can seem like a cheat, or a scam. It loses value specifically for the same reason that it was created - this glamorization and romanticization of the past, but also this disillusion and dismissal of the relevance of recent history, of the here and now.
But I look at the Druid's Temple Folly, and I think, someone carved those stones and moved them and took them here and placed them, and it may not be as old, but... is that not what happened when Stonehenge and other standing stones were set?
Someone builds a castle. 800 years pass, and we call that history. Someone builds a castle today, and we call that artificial. And you can argue about purpose, but if the purpose of the building is to be an artpiece, to provide a work opportunity for someone to build it, to evoke a feeling, to make someone happy about how their home or garden looks... and it succeeds in that purpose, well then it has no less served its intended purpose than the real ancient structure was.
My point, I guess, is that purpose and meaning comes from us. It comes from our intention, our feelings, our belief. It comes from what emotions we instill in a piece of work, and what emotions it stirs in other people.
And I think there's a lot of disdain out there for mimicry, for emulation, because we have always and continue to highly glamorize and value the concept of originality as well as historicity. Novelty is considered a virtue, over resonance, and I think that's a mistake. We are social creatures. Tradition and custom and, yes, emulation of things we admire, comes because we are a social species. We are geared towards the sharing and trying to match each other and to help each other.
And so, because this is my blog for yakking about magic - this too is how I often think about magic and pagan practice today. Knowing our real history IS important, and respecting the culture and history of various practices and peoples IS important and necessary.
But I think sometimes people look at new practices and forming traditions with that same disdain, thinking that it is somehow artificial or lacking meaning, when really what's happening is we have sometimes only scraps of historicity that is highly prized, and we're trying to fill in the gaps with what makes sense and is meaningful to us. And I think that's okay. Stressing the importance of historical weight over everything else both creates the desire to reconstruct or emulate previous culture but condemns it as a poor imitation. Modern-made traditions, meanwhile are denigrated for not having historic weight behind them.
But again, historicity is not what instills significance, be it in a practice or a building or a piece of art. We are. People are. What we believe in, what we do with it, what meaning and impact we try to create and convey to others. Historic buildings and practices matter because we try to retain the memory of people long gone, because that's what humans are. We are love and memory and meaning. But we, the living, are also worthy of that love and respect. It's why being respectful of living cultures and people is paramount, why we owe it to ourselves and each other to educate ourselves on history - not just for the sake of history itself, but out of respect for where we are today and what struggles people face, and to create a better future for everyone.
One day, we too will be ancient history. Do you think people then will look at us as charlatans, as artificial, because we were making things and instilling beliefs in those things?
Somehow I don't think so.
